Posted on 03/24/2020 11:02:21 AM PDT by 11th_VA
The novel coronavirus is causing working-age people to worry about missing paychecks, caring for kids home from school, stockpiling groceries and canceling plans. But people in their 50s, 60s or older have bigger worries. Many are lying awake wondering if this is how they are going to die.
At its most severe, the coronavirus attacks the lungs, making it impossible to breathe without a ventilator. Landing in the hospital on a ventilator is bad. But worse is being told you can’t have one.
To his credit, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is doing his best, but he admits “you can’t find available ventilators no matter how much you’re willing to pay right now, because there is literally a global run on ventilators.”
It’s a little late. Several years ago, after learning that the Empire State’s stockpile of medical equipment had 16,000 fewer ventilators than the 18,000 New Yorkers would need in a severe pandemic, state public-health leaders came to a fork in the road.
They could have chosen to buy more ventilators to back up the supplies hospitals maintain. Instead, the health commissioner, Howard Zucker, assembled a task force for rationing the ventilators they already had.
... that task force came up with rules that will be imposed when ventilators run short. Patients assigned a red code will have highest access, and other patients will be assigned green, yellow or blue (the worst), depending on a “triage officer’s” decision.
In truth, a death officer. Let’s not sugar-coat it. It won’t be up to your own doctor.
... the the state could have purchased the additional 16,000 needed...
The state knew of the shortage, had the money and should have bought the lifesaving equipment, instead of making a plan for who should live or die. A lesson for the future.
.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Commissioner Oxiris Barbot
@NYCHealthCommr
Today our city is celebrating the #LunarNewYear parade in Chinatown, a beautiful cultural tradition with a rich history in our city. I want to remind everyone to enjoy the parade and not change any plans due to misinformation spreading about #coronavirus.
A Guide to Lunar New Year in NYC
Where to celebrate the holiday.
nycgo.com
9:10 AM · Feb 9, 2020·Hootsuite Inc.
https://twitter.com/NYCHealthCommr/status/1226508570646269954
ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And “jobs”
Bookmark
A key factor in state governments inability to fund these kinds of emergency needs is the fact that they still provide full pensions to most state employees. This liability requires them by law to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to shore up their reserve requirements that could be otherwise spent on immediate needs.
Most of the commercial world was forced to switch from defined benefit pensions to 401Ks when the laws changed on how much they would have to bank to guarantee their funds. State governments are long overdue to switch over to a sustainable retirement benefit system that doesn’t shortchange the immediate needs of their citizens.
“They Spent the Money on Hookers and Blow...”
Ventilators to save lives or . . .?
I can totally understand the dilemma.
New York knew, had the money, & chose not to spend it.
Therefore, Trump’s fault.
Cuomo wants 30,000 Vents, well they can’t come out of thin air. By the time they get them crisis will be over, also have they got enough qualified people to run them if they did have them?
It was beautiful to watch. Total checkmate.
NYS is 6 bil in the hole.
We’re spending ****loads of money.
Whether we’ve got it or not.
Just bupkis for public health.
Nobody said or suggested they aren’t working to get the ventilators.
A guy I know that owns an electronic components clearing house just received an order from one of his customers for the parts to build 1000 ventilators.
I suspect Cuomo grossly overestimated his need.
I give Cuomo credit for fighting for his state (at least at this time)however. I hope my governor would do the same.
You might want to go look at his news conference. He had done the math.
Cuomo’s emotional plea for 30,000 respirators is nuts in my opinion. Many people testing positive have few if any symptoms, most do not require hospitalization and not every hospitalized corona virus patient needs a respirator. My bet is that hundreds of respirators will be rushed to New York get lost in a bureaucratic shuffle and end up in some warehouse.
Had Cuomo not outlawed fracking in NY State they would have enough ventilators for every man, woman, and child in the world.
Of course those government workers with their defined benefit pensions have no concept of how it feels to have worked, saved, and invested into a 401K for decades only to see what is happening to it now.
Sure like the diversity infected CDC they use tax payer money for things that do not benefit to populace
manual ventilating is an option, too. It takes some training, but it is possible and NY has millions of people to partake in saving lives. I will definitely do it where I live, if they need me.
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